Today, in the sunny Central Hawkes Bay, Brent from Attach2 caught up with Joel Nicholls; the owner and operator of Nicholls contracting. Joel is working on a local farm, building new access roads with his Volvo ECR145E 12 tonne excavator, all geared up with his Attach2 Performance Package. Brent chats to Joel about his humble beginnings; from starting his earthmoving business by clearing out cattle sheds to now working on various larger projects around the region. Running Attach2 attachments on all three of his excavators, Joel explains how these make his job easier and enable for more productivity every day. 

Dedication to growth from the beginning 

“I've had a passion for diggers since I could walk and talk and that's given me the drive to get me to where I am today. I just absolutely love it. It's a wicked industry to be in. We love a good work crew, have a good work ethic, high expectations and work standards. I love to do a good job and to see the smile on the client's face at the end.” 

Starting the company back in 2017, Joel had a single three and half tonne digger and grew from there.  

“Now, we specialize in civil subdivisions, house sites, driveways (as we're doing here) and just general earthworks. We cover everything; a wide range of it.” 

A bond forged from the ground up 

Brent asks Joel to describe his experience working with the Attach 2 products: 

“We've been working with Attach 2 for about 4 years now. We started off with all Attach 2 implements on our little digger and we've since put them on all our bigger machines now. We have run a few previous attachments in the past and they haven't worked out too well for us compared to Attach2. All their products fit what we want. We now just run strictly Attach2 gear. They're well built, well put together.” 

Joel runs two Heli-Tilt Couplers on two of his 14 tonne Volvos with the multi-grab bucket, the ripper and the wide bucket attachments. He explains which features of the products he loves and why. 

“So with the Attach2 hitches, you just need to grab your ripper, you drop your bucket off, you just flick the button and before you know it you've got your next implement on, it’s a great feature. 

Joel is a particular fan of the Heli-tilt coupler and its flexibility: 

“I absolutely love the Heli-Tilt, great bit of kit with the multi-grab bucket for plucking out trees, posts and anything in general. It gives you that flexibility to pick things up and keep them out of the way of the dipper arm so you're not tangling up all your hoses and stuff in there. It goes great with the wide bucket, cutting back batters and water tables, you can get that perfect angle that you're looking for. We went with the Heli-Tilt specifically because we're going to be doing a lot of trenching and the hitch can go down inside the trench without having to bench it out if you're going over a metre deep. That was just a no brainer for us.” 

The contour of the Attach2 Wide bucket also meant that Joel could cut precise shapes for finishing work, “We absolutely love the shape of the Attach 2 wide bucket, it's well built, has a good profile on it, strong thick sides on the steel, good cutting edges, and is just the perfect shape for finishing off all these batters and water tables. It runs really nice on these hitches.” 

Service with a smile…and a coffee shout 

Joel talks to Brent about his experience with the Attach2 service team, explaining how the other week while on a job, he was in urgent need of a ripper. Luckily, he rang up the team and they were happy to help. 

“I was trying to rip out some trees and they weren't coming out to too well, so I rung the boys down at Attach2 in the late afternoon. I was on my way down the next morning to pick up a ripper for my machine, and it was all in stock and ready to go. The supply and demand is just absolutely wonderful. They are a good bunch of guys and have good service down there. Jono had a coffee for me so I couldn't be any happier!”  

Joel mentions how he hasn’t had to make any warranty claims yet due to no problems occurring with the gear. “It just performs every time like it should and so far, so good”. He goes onto tell Brent that although they have had one of the new machines for a month or so, Jono has called to check up and make sure that they are happy with what they have chosen. “I am absolutely wrapped with the backup service and everything that goes with it,” he explains. 

And so goes the most important question, would Joel recommend Attach2 to his mates? 

He answers swiftly, “I would definitely recommend Attach2 to anybody. I have even recommended a couple of implements to my mate around small diggers. We really care about the work we do for our clients and these guys [at Attach2] have hit the nail on the head with their attachments. It's great gear and a great bunch of guys.”